


Take a Gamble

by ChronicCatalina



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Banter, F/M, Sexual Tension, Undercover Missions, oops this got long, undercover cliches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:54:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22164415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChronicCatalina/pseuds/ChronicCatalina
Summary: You and Poe are a sarcastic duo that work well together, sent on an undercover mission to thwart a First Order weapons deal. Things go awry, of course.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Reader, Poe Dameron/You
Comments: 1
Kudos: 74





	Take a Gamble

“Poe, get down here. It can’t be that bad.”

“Don’t get your hopes up.”

A few reluctant  _ thuds _ brought Poe to the bottom of the stairs. The first thing you noticed was the gelled hair trying to tame his curls. The poncho was quite a sight, too — black as night and adorned with golden chains and buckles, curiously matching his decorative boots. And somehow he still looked good.

But his grimace was icing on the cake. 

You giggled, sliding a hand over your mouth and chin. “Okay, it’s not  _ awful _ . But it’s not —"

“It’s not great, I know.”

He skirted past you, quickly crossing the hangar toward the Falcon. Passing mechanics kept their eyes averted from Poe and you nodded thanks on his behalf. A few other calls of “good luck!” echoed as the Falcon’s door slid shut. 

“And you,” Poe chuckled wryly while flipping switches around the cockpit, “ _ you _ get to wear that and call it a day.”

It was true, your white dress was achingly simple compared to his attire. But apparently these outfits were the best way for each of you to blend in on the mission, and you weren’t complaining that you got the simpler one for once.

“I think you secretly like that cape.”

“It’s a poncho, and I don’t.”

The Falcon leapt into hyperdrive and you crossed a leg haphazardly from the co-pilot’s seat. The stars blended into stripes, the gentle hum of lightspeed filling the easy silence in the cockpit, until finally it all slowed to give way to the destination. Canto Bight was a glittering jewel of a city – a shiny,  _ sickening _ place for the rich and cruel and famous.

Poe landed a safe distance from the skyscraping casino, leaving the Falcon out of sight and ready for a quick escape if needed. You crept side by side toward the unnerving clamor of the city, only straightening up when you got closer. Adrenaline kickstarted a  _ rush _ in your veins when the rendezvous site came into view and your hand wove a practiced path into the folds of your skirt, brushing the blaster strapped underneath for reassurance.

Ushers opened the massive doors, lifting the muzzle off the noise and letting the bright lights of the casino glare freely.

Poe offered you his elbow. “Shall we?”

You gladly took it, sneaking in a grin before setting your sights on the crowd. “Might as well.”

It wasn’t hard to find a path in the busy atrium – drunk gamblers and partiers were predictable, and you and Poe could effortlessly move in sync. Step left to avoid a pair of quarreling Bothans, backtrack around a raucous group of humanoid dancers, and weave through the line of low-stakes gambling circles. The first sign of First Order troops appeared at the racetrack betting tables and Poe gave you a nudge.

“You wanna remind me what we’re up against? A mechanic was rattling off X-Wing problems to me during the briefing.”

“A single buyer,” you spoke over the noise. “Local warlord known only as Jago. Wears red robes, black star tattoo on his neck. The First Order is selling him a hundred E-Webs that he’ll use to squash Resistance efforts on an Outer Rim planet.”

He whistled low under his breath. “Yeah, we’re not letting that happen. So it’s just that guy?”

“That guy and any First Order goons stationed in the city.”

“Won’t Jago bring backup?”

“In our intercepted transmission, the First Order said he had to come alone.”

“Easy enough.” He shrugged with a little cautious bravado to boost both of you. “Let’s destroy that shipment and bail.”

You bit back a grin, still striding in step with your mission partner. It was a simple plan, sure, and the two of you were experienced enough to handle it. Besides, you fit against Poe’s side like the Maker designed it that way. Upon finding a spot with a view of the whole room, Poe planted himself and snuck a glance at you before surveying the field.

The waiting game wasn’t long. The First Order troops started getting restless, muttering into their comms units and fiddling with their blasters.

“There.” Poe jutted his chin toward the bar. “That’s gotta be Jago.”

He was right, and Jago was  _ terrifying _ . Towering over the creatures around him, his platinum shock of hair contrasted his scarred face and the dark tattoos lining his neck. His red robes were draped over a bulky build and the end of a rifle poked through. He was ready for a fight.

It was your turn to nudge Poe. “Let’s get over there. They’ll take him to the shipment soon.”

Like a grand ballet, the First Order troopers stalked toward Jago in single file while you and Poe approached from an angle. The music crescendoed, drinks spilled in your wake, and you were hot on Poe’s heels through it all, pacing yourself to stay out of sight of the enemy.

But it didn’t work.

You slammed into a ranking Stormtrooper, throwing you off track. Your white dress caught wine stains as you tried to push out of a group of civilians, but the trooper grabbed your arm and yanked you inches from his helmet.

“Watch it!” he seethed.

Trying to jerk away yielded no results. Your heart raced, drowning out any commotion behind you.

“Wait a minute…” He pulled out a hologram projector and up popped an image of your face. His viselike grip got tighter. “I’ve got a Resistance fighter!”

**_Clang!_ ** A table crashed into the trooper, sending him sprawling as cards and chips rained down like confetti. Poe popped up from behind the table, his gelled curls shaking freely. The two of you comically stared back and forth between each other and the fallen Trooper.

“Did you just –”

“ _ Yeah _ ,” he huffed while you took his outstretched hand, “not as heavy as it looks. We gotta go.”

Your “thanks” was breathless and the chase was on. First Order troopers and Stormtroopers were swarming and you and Poe dodged around them, ducking behind casino security droids and patron’s opulent hats. A flash of red caught your eye and you whirled toward it, Poe barely in tow.

“There’s Jago! They’ve gotta be leading him to the shipment.”

You hurried toward the archway leading out back, just a little further and you’d be free of the chaos inside. Poe gave a hopeful gasp and the way his bejeweled boots clacked on the tile floor almost drew a tease from your lips.

But you never got the chance because a Stormtrooper suddenly blocked your path.

“Shit!”

“Dammit! C’mon,” Poe groaned, switching hands to pull you the opposite way.

Troopers’ cries rang out behind you and their thunderous pursuit was the stuff of nightmares, the fever dream all tied together by the glitz and glam of the casino. You kept low as best you could and trusted Poe’s every step even as he led you closer to the performing stage.

The music was deafening but became muffled when you dipped into an alcove next to the stage. It was crowded with drunk partygoers gyrating and kissing what you could only hope was each other’s mouths. But even in that small mob you felt exposed because the troopers could be heard closing in and could walk by at any second.

“They’re going to find us,” you clipped.

But Poe was busy shuffling you toward the back of the alcove, keeping a grip on your elbows as he glanced over his shoulder.

“ _ Poe _ , we’ve got to –”

His kiss silenced you.

Your back hit the wall a moment later and still the kiss continued – his lips were tense and unmoving and definitely only there to hide your faces from passersby and  _ was that his hand caressing your lower back?  _ You grasped his arm to steady your heart and dared not kiss back.

(Even if you wanted to.)

With your faces hidden, the Stormtroopers rushed past and continued their search elsewhere. Poe checked over his shoulder again and then his eyes were back on you, sparing an imperceptible glance to your lips.

“Sorry, I just –”

“No, good thinking.” You nodded and gave his chest a supportive pat. “They definitely didn’t want to venture in here.”

With no time to lose and no desire to further analyze  _ what the hell just happened _ , you and Poe jostled through the crowd and back out into the open. Thankfully there were no troopers in sight and you snuck to the back archway and out into the night.

The brick courtyard was lined with massive palm trees that hid it from the view of any casino onlookers and it was silent except for metallic clattering behind a door on the far side.

“E-Webs.”

“Has to be,” you murmured back.

Walking through the open courtyard felt out of place and the two of you flicked wary glances all around. Your kept your hand poised on the slit in your dress, ready for whatever the sinister shadows would throw your way. And it didn’t take long.

“Hey, you there!” A First Order trooper stepped into view.

You tore out your blaster and shot him square in the chest. He crumpled and no more troopers appeared.

“Yeah, I think we’re in the right place,” Poe quipped.

He took one side of the door and you the other, gently pushing it open enough to peek inside. Jago loomed on one side of a stone table facing a First Order commander, both flanked by Stormtroopers. The itching trigger fingers could instantly send the room up in flames. But even through the tension, the conversation wasn’t hard to hear.

“The Supreme Leader wants payment  _ now _ .”

“He’ll get his payment after I see the shipment myself,” Jago growled. “And don’t fool yourselves by thinking it’s hidden, I know it’s in the crates past the outer gates of this courtyard.”

That was what you needed to hear. As awful as Jago was, the mission was to destroy the shipment of E-Webs, not assassinate a warlord. Poe nodded and you followed, circling to the outside of the courtyard and easily finding the target. Crates and crates of insidious E-Webs were loaded onto a transport.

And surrounded by red-caped men carrying torches. Jago’s troops.

Poe skidded to a stop. “I thought you said Jago  _ wasn’t _ supposed to bring backup.”

“Looks like he trusts the First Order about as much as we do.”

You counted six; Poe pointed out two more at the edge of the forest. Your blaster was still warm from the last shot fired and you braced your hand on the vine-covered wall, ready to fire it again. But Poe’s gentle touch to your wrist gave you reason for pause.

“I have something else that might work,” he murmured. From under his poncho he pulled out a pair of thermal detonators and a grin to match. “Turns out this blanket I’m wearing had its uses.”

Your face lit up but fell into a frown just as quickly. “Poe, we can’t detonate them  _ or _ the E-Webs here. It could level half the casino.”

“So I’ll lure the guards away while you program –”

“I program the transport to fly deep into the woods!” the rest of the plan rolled off your tongue like lightning. “ _ Then _ we detonate.”

“We detonate the  _ hell  _ out of it.”

The Resistance had come to rely on this kind of synchronization between you and Poe and it hadn’t yet let anyone down. After delicately handing you the detonators, he squeezed your shoulder for luck and you didn’t hide the nervous anticipation in your eyes – you never hid it from each other, not when it was so  _ real _ . By the time you realized he was close enough to kiss you again he was gone, brandishing his blaster and dashing out into the open.

“Hey, you big scary bastards!” He fired a few shots before Jago’s troops realized what was happening.

They gave chase and you lied in wait for the stampede to pass, then took a deep breath and slinked over to the transport under the cover of darkness. Even with your skirts in one hand and cradling the detonators in the other, you managed to leap into the driver’s seat with ease. Blaster shots rang out from Poe’s direction but you forced yourself to concentrate on the task at hand.

Which was a little more difficult than normal. First Order tech was different enough that you pressed a few wrong buttons before igniting the engine.  _ Is this your first time behind the wheel? _ you could hear Poe teasing if he’d been there.

A heavy  _ thunk _ sounded and you whirled to see one of Jago’s troops standing on the back of the transport, pulling out his blaster. You beat him to it and shot him in the neck.

“Too close,” you whispered to yourself as he landed in the dirt.

With a few more switches flipped, you slammed the steering lever forward and jumped out of the driver’s seat. You armed the detonators with a flick of your thumbs and tossed them onto the transport as it hurtled into the woods.

Trees crashed in its wake as you fled the opposite direction. The ten seconds ticked by,  _ just _ enough for you to make it to the courtyard walls – eyes squeezed shut, hands clamped over your ears – and then came the massive explosion. The vibration rattled deep in your bones.

But you couldn’t stay covered forever. As expected, Jago’s remaining troops raced back to the transport’s spot and then toward the inferno, their angry curses echoing in the flames devouring the trees. You slipped away unnoticed toward the edge of the city, where Poe had originally led them.

And you didn’t have to worry about him for long.

“Hey!” came a tense whisper from your right.

Poe emerged from a stack of barrels and split into a wide smile, ecstatic to see you alive and well. You fell into his embrace without a second thought.

“E-Webs are gone,” you declared. “Nice job with the distraction, by the way.”

He pulled back to wave you off. “That was the easy part. Jago needs to hire better mercenaries, these guys can’t shoot for  _ shit _ .”

That was the end of the reunion, because Jago himself strode out from behind the courtyard walls and surveyed the entire scene. The firelight painted him even more fearsome. He yelled obscenities at his troops, the First Order commander, and the Stormtroopers before his gaze landed on you and Poe looking not particularly innocent.

“Get them!” he bellowed.

“Here we go again…”

Poe took your hand like clockwork and your tired legs carried you into the city. From cobblestone to pavement, around market stalls and under giant droids’ legs, and in between partygoers taking a midnight stroll.

You and Poe were fast but the enemy was just as quick, even if they were still a good distance behind. But the hunt couldn’t go on forever and as you rounded a sharp corner, there it was. Saving grace in the form of an alleyway. You yanked Poe in with you and prayed it was enough to shake them.

The alley was narrower than anticipated and Poe was nearly pressed into you. The chase left your heart  _ pounding _ and your chest  _ heaving _ and the brick wall at your back  _ dug _ into your dress and all at once the ridiculousness of the situation had you clutching your mouth to hold back giggles.

Poe noticed, his dark eyes glistening at you as a smirk played on his own mouth. He playfully brought a finger to his own lips to gesture for you to  _ keep quiet _ .

And now you were looking at his lips.

It felt like the gravitational pull of a galaxy, the way you gazed at the curve of his mouth. The sheer proximity was intoxicating, sending tendrils of heat curling up your skin. The memory of his kiss was as clear as the night sky and left a sparkle in your eyes when you finally looked up.

Poe noticed  _ that _ , too, and he sobered as his own gaze dipped to your lips and back.

A blur of red capes and white armor trampled past your hiding spot at that moment. Not too long after Jago and the First Order commander followed, still barking frustrated orders. But all that commotion barely registered within the dark confines of the alley. The pull between you was still too strong, drowning out everything else, even the gradual quiet that grew in the street.

“I think they’re gone,” you breathed.

“Yeah…”

A blaster firing in the distance finally made Poe snap his eyes away. He leaned out of the alley to check if the coast was clear and motioned for you to follow, and it was back to business as usual – this goddamn mission.

“Let’s get the hell off this planet.”

The streets slowly became familiar as you neared the entrance to the casino and that’s when Poe noticed a speeder sitting idle, its driver preoccupied with trying to sell something to a pair of drunk civilians.

“Wanna get to the Falcon faster?” he called.

You followed his line of sight. “You bet! Can I drive?”

“What?”

“You might be a great pilot,” you raced the last few feet and jumped in the driver’s seat, revving the engine with a proud cock of your brow, “but I’m better on a speeder and you  _ know _ it.”

Poe could only grin and shake his head while hopping on the back, barely getting a grip on your waist before you floored it. You flew past the casino in time to see Jago emerging from the front doors and he erupted again, shrieking and waving wildly until a Stormtrooper flew up on a speeder. He hopped on the back and they sped toward you.

Poe exasperatedly smacked the side of your speeder. “We just can’t catch a  _ break _ with this guy.”

The chase was on once again and you quickly made it to the edge of the city, where Jago opened fire. Blaster shots illuminated the night around you and Poe did his best to return fire while you evasively swerved through the meadow.

“This isn’t good!” Poe yelled. “They’ll kill us if we go to the Falcon now.”

As you tried to reach for your blaster, you accidentally flicked a switch on the dashboard and a small panel opened between the handlebars. There sat a thermal detonator, primed and ready for any opponent.

“You’re not gonna believe our luck,” you cried over the wind, holding up the detonator like a prize. “Will you do the honors?”

“Gladly.”

Poe armed and tossed the detonator, hiding his face against your neck as the explosion knocked your speeder forward. Leaving the smoking remains in the dust, you finally headed toward the Falcon in peace.

“Woohoo! Not bad for a guy in a poncho,” he crowed.

You let out a holler into the night, feeling free as the wind whipped past your face. The Falcon finally came into view and you slowed down to jump off the speeder with Poe right behind. The two of you were significantly worse for wear than when you left the Falcon earlier in the evening but you trudged to the cockpit with your heads held high – tattered clothes, dirty boots, wine stains, and all.

While Poe fired up the engine, you patched through to command central. Resistance leaders wanted a status update as soon as you were done.

“Falcon to Command One,” you proudly beamed at Poe, “we completed the mission and are en route back to base.”

Lightspeed came and went and then you were landing on base between the flight deck operators signaling with their orange lights. It was the dead of night so there was no congratulatory crowd waiting, and that was okay. You’d had your fill of crowds. 

Poe stood to leave as soon as the Falcon touched down, and so did you — landing you face to face for the second time that night. Time froze as you fell into each other’s orbit once again. His breath on your cheek, your glance to his lips, the steady rise and fall of your chests in sync. The tension threatened to rip you in two and you  _ almost _ did something about it.

The comms crackled inside the cockpit. “Captains, let’s have that debriefing now.”

You stepped away first, catching your breath as you strode out of the Falcon a few paces ahead of Poe. The silence of the runway rung in your ears because all you could do was think about the man just a few feet behind. And all at once, after all those chases that evening, you were tired of running away.

You spun on your heel, arms swinging wide. It was now or never.

“Poe —”

“Yeah, what the hell.”

The distance closed in a flash and his lips found yours with ease. He properly cradled your cheek this time, melting you further into his touch. Your hands carded through his hair and deepened the kiss like the Maker intended. The heat in your chest blossomed when Poe smiled against your mouth.

You broke it first, panting and idly playing with the curls at the nape of his neck. It no longer hurt to be this close, not when all the doubt had dissipated.

“The debrief...” you reluctantly muttered.

“I think we can handle that now.” After sharing another satisfied grin, he let you walk ahead and only spoke loud enough for you to hear. “Though it probably won’t be as  _ brief  _ as I’d like.”


End file.
